The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn really begins when Huck and Jim encounter eachother on Jackson Island. When I look at the painting by George Inness I think of the time their sleeping in the woods and exploring the island together. This is when Jim and Huck start to coexist. As Tocqueville put it the whites can either continue "to emancipate the negroes, and to intermingle with them; or, remaining isolated from them, to keep them in a state of slavery as long as possible." Twain decides that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will be about them being together and not wanting to leave the lives they've come to love after fleeing from where they lived for different reasons. And this painting reflects the beginning of all that as it shows a forest of trees in a gloomy style way, where I imagine Huck and Jim remaining hidden under the vast amount of trees and leaves that encompass the river.
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